Nylon polymers are desirable in many applications due to its their outstanding elasticity, dye-fastness and high melting point. Nylon polymers commonly take the form of pellets or flakes, which can be melted and shaped for use in plastic applications; or extruded as fiber for use in yarn applications, such as apparel, carpet, airbags and outdoor gear.
In recent years, nylon resins have been utilized for automotive, electronics, industrial and consumer applications. In order to meet the performance standards for these applications, Nylon resins are commonly enhanced with additives such as impact modifiers and mineral or synthetic reinforcements.
Impact modified nylon compositions are useful for industrial applications because they generally possess good impact strength, stiffness and weld line strength. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,346,194 and 6,579,581, teach nylon resins with impact modifying components. Common impact modifiers are elastomeric, olefinic copolymers grafted with carboxyl or carboxylate functional groups. It is desirable to have nylon compositions with a high impact strength and stiffness. However, it is well known and understood that improving the impact strength of a polymer composition with commercially available modifiers generally results in a proportional decrease in tensile strength. Due to this inverse relationship, to achieve a significant increase in impact strength for a composition, a corresponding decrease in tensile strength must also be expected. This inverse relationship limited the use of impact modified nylon compositions when tensile strength requirements cannot be met.
Therefore, there is a need for thermoplastic molding compositions that possess increased impact strength and similar tensile strength to the base resin used in the composition.